Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) will cut off gas supply to more than 600 industrial units from Thursday (today) at 6am for 48, as a resul more than 300,000 workers most of them daily wagers would become jobless.
The leaders of Pakistan Textile Workers Federation (PTWF) revealed that more than 70,000 looms remain closed during the last one week due to non-supply of sized yarn due to gas loadshedding, while workforce facing severe problems to earn their livelihood for their families.
The prevailing situation badly affected the routine life cycle of labour class, while price hike which are gifts of the federal government were adding fuel to fire, said Mian Abdul Qayyum, President PTWF. Chaudhry Salamat Ali, Chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMA) North Zone said that the unavailability of gas shattering the hopes for the revival of crisis ridden value added textile sector, which is already tumbling down due to multiple factors including massive increase in input costs, inclusive of energy and cost of borrowing, and a host of other unfavourable conditions like law and order problems.
Talking to newsmen, he said that the gas scarcity would hit hard the textile exports across the value-chain, while upcountry textile exports would suffer loss of Rs 48 million during the three months due to weekly gas shut down and the industrial units will be forced to lay off staff from industrial units.
The chairman PHMA North Zone demanded that the government should concentrate on the confronting issues on priority basis. He said that government has neither planned about future energy requirements nor distributing the available resources equally across the board. All other three provinces are being provided gas everyday whereas Punjab is being provided gas only for 125 days in a calendar year, which would badly affect export oriented and labour intensive textile sector.
He urged the government to ensure equitable rationing of gas across the board otherwise the industry would collapse shortly. The industries in Punjab were facing scheduled gas supply cuts to feed other consumers including, households that start using more gas in winter for heating purposes, he added.